Advice before i dive in

[SkuMe]

Ok so i am getting a 150 gallon tank that a good friend has let sit for a little over a year untouched. it has sand and rock with water still in it, but it has crashed MANY times on him. i am fully expecting to have to replace sand, but am not liking the idea of tossing the rock or even bleaching the rock for that matter. his sump is a wet/dry setup and i prefer a refugium style sump so that too will be replaced. i plan on taking it REALLY slow and since i have 2 tanks already i have no real rush to get it done. plus being a little tight on cash helps me keep things slow haha.

my first thought was to bleach the rocks and take a rock from my 90 gallon and let it be the seed for the new system. i feel this might be possible but its just my guess. any and all help is very appreciated. thanks in advance!

Sku

 

[sean151]

Instead of bleach, why not do some hydrogen peroxide doses to kill of algeas that you would kill with bleach and also not have to worry about introducing the bleach into the tank.

 

[Downbeach]

I would sanitize the tank and sump, and any other equipment that you may be using from that tank, by cleaning it with a mixture of bleach and water, rinse and use vinegar to remove any remaining dead coraline, etc. I would do the same to the rock, and do an etching process with vinegar and water.

 

[SkuMe]

given that this is a glass tank my concern with the bleaching is that bleach eats up caulking and i would rather not re-caulk the whole tank. i have never heard of the etching process can you explain what that is?